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Introduction part 1

April 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you’ve landed here chances are parenthood hasn’t been the ride you were expecting. Or, at the very least, someone you care about is embarking on the unexpected ride that is premmie parenting. Just over four years ago I started down this path with the birth of my first child Erin who was born at 26+3 weighing 428 grams. At the time she was the second smallest surviving baby born at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

Despite her tiny size and early gestation our NICU stay was fairly uneventful. I’m incredibly grateful to have never received that phone call. The one that makes the blood drain from your face while your head prickles and the world spins. It was long though. 148 days, nearly five months of daily hospital visits and expressing milk in the wee small hours, watching other babies “graduate” while for yours nothing much changes. Some days I think that might be one of the hardest things.

Things started to get hard for me by the middle of our stay. The shock had worn off and I was becoming worn out both physically and emotionally. We were into our third month and Erin was still in the same room, she’d finally made it off the vent and on to CPAP but again nothing was happening. Now I’m not good at waiting at the best times, but sit me in a NICU day in day out and watch me crumble.

This particular day a mum of triples came into the expressing room excited that two of her sons had been graduated to room two, one step closer to going home. That day I just went downstairs and cried. To some degree you expect the “rollercoaster”. You’re told to expect it at least, what no one tells you, or at least they didn’t tell me was to expect the incredibly long periods of nothing. The days when you weren’t sure you were ever going to get home, not because things were bad, but because things were the same. Always the same.

We did get home though. My daughter was nearly five months old, weighed a healthy 3.2 kilos and was still very much a baby—one thing I was sad about missing out on. Things were good, if a little bit of an anti climax, we got to be together, just us, as a family for the first time ever. Things were good.

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Filed Under: Parenting

Green for Prems

April 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It’s exciting to watch an event grow legs and walk on its own. Not only did “Green for Prems” walk, but it hit the ground running!

greenforprem

The sheer number of people who “attended” Li’l Aussie Prems online national event via Face book, ordered bands and wore green in honour or memory of a very special child (or children) in their lives was astounding and far beyond our expectations. I guess that goes to show that the stats really do under estimate the number of lives touched by premature birth—11% of babies are born early. That translates into thousands of people affected.

All you need to do is look at the Green for Prems event page, the number of photos and stories there to see just a portion of the premmie community. It really has been lovely to see such an outpouring from so many people supporting this cause and allowing us, in turn, to support other charities who do so much to help families during difficult times–Yasminah’s Gift of Hope, Sewing Mummy, Backpacks 4 Aussie Kids, C.H.I.L.D.

Filed Under: L'il Aussie Prems

Infant Massage – Healthy Preemie Growth Rates

April 24, 2008 By Leave a Comment

By Andrew Exon

Infant Massage has found its own niche in the medical industry and it promotes healthy growth of premature and full-term infants. Low birth weight and bone mineralization are both common problems of premature infants that lead to many other related health complications.

Recent studies have found that regular infant massage performed by a certified masseuse while the baby is in the hospital have aided in the early weight gain necessary for the baby to flourish. The Touch Research Institute of Miami School of Medicine conducted one study on premature infants where one group received a massage from a professional masseuse and the second group received the regular neonatal infant care. They found the infants who were recipients of the massage while in the NICU gained from 21 to 47 percent more weight than the infants in the control group.

The reason for this increased weight gain is linked to the massage stimulating pressure receptors, primarily found in the hands, feet, and lower back. When these receptors are stimulated it slows the heart rate and blood pressure. When these are slowed it stimulates growth hormones.

Another study done at George Washington University found that bone mineralization in premature infants also increased with the use of infant massage. Both groups received physical activity and the same amount of nutrients. The massage group received gentle massages on their head, face, neck, shoulders, back, legs, feet, and arms. The biomarkers used to study bone mineralization were C terminal procollagen peptide (PICP), urine pryidinolin (urine Pyd), serum calcium, alkaline phosphates, and parathyroid hormone(PTH). They found that in the massage group levels of PICP and PTH were both significantly greater that levels found in the control group. Each group had increased levels of urine Pyd and neither group had a significant change in the serum calcium or alkaline phosphates.

Infant Massage is making its mark in the professional medical field as a natural method to promote preemies to better health through increased weight gain quicker and greater bone mineralization.

For more information about [http://www.free-body-massage.info]Massage Therapy go to [http://www.free-body-massage.info]www.free-body-massage.info.

By A. Exon [http://www.free-body-massage.info]www.free-body-massage.info.

Andrew is a Marriage, Family, and Human Development graduate who enjoys swing dancing, camping, fly-fishing, and other recreational sports which provide physical excercise and relaxation.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Exon http://EzineArticles.com/?Infant-Massage—Healthy-Preemie-Growth-Rates&id=533569

Filed Under: NICU Life, Premature Babies, Premmie Baby Development

Prematurity on the Today program

November 18, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Next week on the Today program they’re doing a piece on premature babies. The following is a letter I’ve sent in:

Dear Today,
My daughter Miss E was born prematurely on the 29th of March this year, at 26 week 3 days gestation–for a premmie those three days make a huge difference–she weighed 426 grams. I had preeclampsia which had caused her placenta to fail and resulted in “Intra Uterine Growth Retardation” and her tiny size. No one expected her to survive birth much less cry, but she did. She was born kicking and screaming, scoring an Apgar of 9 at both 1 and 5 minutes.

The trip down NICU lane has been a long, rough one for my little girl lasting five months–seven weeks were spent ventilated and a further seven on CPAP, in her first week her skin was so fragile that it wasn’t uncommon for us to find little tears and sores on her tiny body. During her first weeks she was so unstable that simply changing her nappy caused her heart rate and oxygen saturation levels to drop to a point where she would turn white or blue and it would take almost half an hour for her to recover. For this reason I didn’t get to hold her for the first time until she was six weeks old.

Like all premmies she has “Chronic Lung Disease” a condition in which damaged lung tissue causes breathing and health problems. This is partially due to her prematurity and partially due to her unavoidable ventilation. Her CLD means that we have to be careful to keep her away from potentially sick people and children under five. Up until recently this has meant no trips out of the house, we didn’t take her anywhere there’s likely to be crowds and if we did venture out we’d take her in her “Bubble”–her pram covered by the rain shield. This may seem strange, but 1/3 of all premmies are readmitted to hospital in their first year due to colds and flu. Many of them end up back on CPAP or worse, being ventilated. We still avoid most places.

For a little girl no one thought would survive she has done remarkably well. Though she’s small (she currently weighs 4.85kg/10lbs 11oz at 7.5 months or 3.5 months corrected) and we have problems with feeding and potential developmental delays down the track we have been incredibly lucky. We still face years of doctors’ visits and the increased possibility of things like autism, developmental delays and behavioral problems things could have been much, much worse. As one of her nurses said recently “she’s about as small as they come and survive”.

I was very excited when I heard Richard say you were doing a piece on premature babies because there’s a huge misconception out there that premmies are just babies who were born a bit early and a bit small but are other wise “normal”. While this is sometimes the case, it is more often not true. Even the ones born “just a little early” (30+ weeks gestation) still face the prospect of brain bleeds and lasting illnesses and disabilities related to their prematurity while others.

Thanks for your time,

Filed Under: Premature Babies, Premmie Baby Development

Bonding with my (micro) premmie Part 1

November 7, 2007 By Leave a Comment

On my first day of full time, solo parenting I managed to clip the tip off of Miss E’s big toe while trying to trim her toenails—I’ve not touched baby nail clippers since that day. I think that was one of the first times I’d ever really felt like her mother. I’d made, what seemed like, this huge mistake and there wasn’t a nurse hovering over my shoulder to fix it up for me.

If bonding with a healthy, full term baby is difficult than bonding with a premmie must be a whole different ball game. This is the story of my attempts at bonding with Miss E while in the NICU.

Miss E was born via emergency caesarean due to severe preeclampsia. I’ve said before that after she was born they pulled her resuscitaire up beside me to show me her face. What I didn’t say was that I really didn’t care. I don’t know if it was a result of the drugs or an emotional response, but it’s a great source of shame, sadness and disappointment for me. I never expected to react like that to the first time I saw my own baby. After that she was whisked away and I didn’t see her again, while lucid, until two days later.

I barely remember seeing her that time, even though the drugs had worn off and the addled knowledge that I was going to die mingled with a desperate need for sleep had gone away. Two days later I sat by her Perspex box in a wheelchair because I still couldn’t get my legs to work, swallowing back tears as Miss E’s nurse uncovered her isolette and lowered it so I could see in.

There, in a nest of wires and tubes, was my little girl and I felt nothing but fear. How do you bond with a creature that looks nothing like any baby you’d ever seen? A baby you’re afraid to touch because her skin is so fragile that it tears when she has her diaper changed and you can’t bear to cause her more pain. Even if you wanted to touch you can barely see enough skin to make contact.

Beyond just the physical limitations I was still dealing with the loss of my pregnancy and the birth I so desperately wanted. Not to mention shock. I think I lived in a bubble of shock and fear for two weeks. Afraid to touch or even talk to her with the portholes open in case I was sick and didn’t know. My mantra became “you’ll never forgive yourself if she dies because of you”. I don’t know how much time I spent making up excuses to not go to see her. I would have done almost anything to stay away from that horrible place.

The next four weeks were spent in a blur of expressing breast milk, containment holding and reading fairytales. I thought I was bonding. At the very least I wasn’t avoiding her.

Part 2 to come.

Filed Under: NICU Life, Parenting

Ambiguous loss of premature birth

October 12, 2007 By Leave a Comment

In one of my frequent searches of Google I found this article entitled Ambiguous loss of premature birth. It basically says that, while our babies may be a live there is still a grieving process associated with the loss of a healthy pregnancy and a full term baby.

When grief is related to loss of an experience, not a death, how does one grieve or cope? Boss (1999) coined the term “ambiguous loss” when studying the wives of pilots missing in action in Vietnam and Cambodia. They had no information and no official verification that anything had been lost, thus were filled with conflicting thoughts and feelings.

Filed Under: Parenting
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